Steve Huffman, who is the chief executive of Reddit according to The Washington Post, admitted this week to swapping names of pro-Trump group’s leaders when his username was mentioned. The result made it seem as though posts with expletives that were aimed at him appeared to be aimed at the pro-Trump group’s leaders.

Huffman claimed the switch was intended to be a prank but instead it “fanned the flames of controversy,” according to The Washington Post.

The subreddit and its users are reportedly known for “promoting conspiracy theories and fake news across Reddit and gleefully invading and bombarding the rest of the platform with pro-Trump memes,” reported The Post.

Reddit was forced to alter and change its algorithm over the summer due to the continuous changes and flood of memes.

In the beginning, Huffman told The Washington Post, the co-founder ignored the abuse and mentions by the groups or its members. After a while, however, he concluded that doing nothing wasn’t the route he wanted to take.

“If The_Donald had done this to another Reddit employee, I would have banned them,” he said.

Despite the move violating Reddit’s employee policies, Huffman told The Washington Post he was going to make the edits temporary.

In the past, Reddit moved to implement anti-harassment rules and banned a handful of subreddits that violated those guidelines.

The former interim chief executive, Ellen Pao, resigned after the ban caused issues between the company and some of the subreddits reportedly affected by the new rules. After Pao stepped down, Huffman took the position and maintained that there would be no interfering with users’ posts, as long as they kept within the basic guidelines.

A Reddit moderator published images of Slack conversations last week between Reddit moderators, admins and Huffman regarding the alleged altered posts. Later, Huffman confirmed that the images posted were authentic.

Within the conversations, Huffman reportedly expressed not wanting to ban the group, which is also referred to as “t_d,” entirely.

“You make it seem like I don’t care about figuring out t_d,” Huffman wrote later in the chat, going on to say that “banning it,” as many of the moderators had asked according to The Post, “would create a mess.”

Backlash towards Hoffman ranged from both sides, including those who do not support Trump. The Post reported one commenter who said “I can't stand the thought of Trump entering the White House, but I have to stand up to this. It's wrong and totally unprofessional. It's going to zap any trust people have with the organization.”

While the move might have hurt Hoffman’s credibility with users, he told The Post, it’s inspired him to have the site set up to allow users to filter out negative content and work to put a stop to harassment.